Donna Ward/FilmMagicOn Thursday, R&B legend Gladys Knight joined VH1 Save the Music’s new executive director, Henry Donahue, to “flip the switch” to make the New York City’s famous Empire State Building’s tower lights shine in blue and yellow to commemorate the culmination of the nationally recognized Music in Our Schools Month.

“Everything in our lives whether we recognize it or not is music!” the seven-time Grammy winner said during the event, which also included seventh-grade student musicians from Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School in New York City. “When the taxis go, ‘honk honk’ — that’s a note,” Knight said. “We need to keep music in our children’s lives. Plus, it broadens us. The music that we learn and the lyrics that come with it tell us stories, how we can live and how we can do things better. And it’s so much easier to incorporate that into who we are when we have music along with it.”

Started in 1973 through the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Music in Our Schools Month is a nationwide annual celebration during March which engages music educators, students, and communities from around the country in promoting the benefits of instilling high-quality music education programs in schools.

The “Midnight Train to Georgia” diva is keeping busy this season. Tonight, she will be honored at BET’s Black Girls Rock event at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, New Jersey. Then, this wednesday, April 6, she will be honored at the Harlem School of the Arts’ Vision Gala at the New York City Center.